Philip Guston: a restless artist painting the everyday nature of evil | Tate

Note: This film includes reference to racism and imagery of racist violence and the Ku Klux Klan. Philip Guston thought hard about the artist’s responsibility to bear witness to ‘the brutality of the world‘. Consistently changing and reinventing, he sought to make work that embodies life’s complexities, its beauty, absurdity, humour and suffering. In this short film, curators Michael Wellen and Michael Raymond, conservator Anna Cooper and the artist’s daughter, Musa Mayer, recount the story of Guston’s life and career, as well as his restless urge to challenge himself creatively. This film was created as part of the Terra Foundation for American Art Series: New Perspectives. It includes extracts from the following documentaries: Philip Guston: A Life Lived, directed by Michael Blackwood (New York: Michael Blackwood Productions, 1981). Conversations with Philip Guston, directed by Michael Blackwood (New York: Michael Blackwood Productions, 2003). Subscribe for weekly films: